US WEST coast terminals are working to normalize cargo handling operations, but are being hampered by constraints that make it difficult to see anything but a rocky road ahead, reports Newark's Journal or Commerce.
"Most of the terminals in Los Angeles-Long Beach have sufficient space to turn even the biggest ships in one week," said Long Beach engineer Moffatt & Nichol's port planner Larry Nye.
"Oakland, Seattle and Tacoma actually have excess capacity. However, the ports have not had to deal with the current levels of congestion since the 2002 longshore contract negotiations," he said.
In normal times, a vessel will arrive in port and proceed directly to berth. Containers loaded with imports are discharged from the ship and are immediately replaced with loaded export containers and empties that are stacked nearby.
But this no longer happens. Imports, exports and empties are jammed together in every corner of US west coast terminals, often stored in locations where they do not belong.
This involves multiple handling with import boxes that should be in a stack awaiting the arrival of a trucker may be stored in a far corner of the terminal.
A docker driving a top-pick machine must retrieve the import load and move it to the stack of other imports before it is ready for pickup. Multiple handling creates labour shortages.
Trucking capacity is always tight because a number of truck visits take more than the one hour than is considered normal in the terminal operating industry.
Many truck delays during the recent months of congestion have lasted two hours or longer. This creates a shortage of drivers, whose driving time is further limited by new federal hours of work.
Then there is the chassis shortage, which began in the spring of last year when carriers sold them to leasing companies. The transition was difficult with truckers forced to bring containers to one facility and the chassis to another.
Supposedly, import boxes should be dropped off at a rail yard or distribution centre where an export load or empty container is mounted back on to the same chassis.
But as terminals clogged, they began to restrict the movement of empties and export loads, resulting in chassis lingering at outside locations compounding the chassis shortage.
With berths full, dozens of ships are now running up to three weeks behind schedule, said Mark Sisson, who leads the marine analysis group at Los Angeles-based AECOM.
The ports should achieve a measure of relief in March, he said, because factories in Asia are closed for the Lunar New Year celebration, and it will take them a few weeks to return to normal production.
Terminal operators are expected to work more night or weekend shifts in Southern California where the PierPass extended gates programme has a process whereby terminals work a second shift.
"But those shifts are costly because dockers are paid for eight hours for every five hours worked. What's more, these shifts attract part-time dockers, who are not as productive as regulars.
Some industry analysts predict it will take ports three months to return to normal with other more optimistic analysts predicting six to eight weeks of hard times ahead.
PORTS
03 March 2015 - 07:31
Rocky road ahead before US west coast cargo handling normalised
US WEST coast terminals are working to normalise cargo handling operations, but are being hampered by constraints that make it difficult to see anything but a rocky road ahead, reports Newark's Journal or Commerce.
PORTS
03 March 2015 - 07:31
Rocky road ahead before US west coast cargo handling normalized
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